Friday, January 30, 2009

On an old pillowcase she drew a flower design and taught me the basic stitches - outline, satin, cross, chain, and the hardest for me - the french knot.

She put together a small round tin that was big enough to hold the beautifully colored threads, the needles, the metal hoop, and my most cherished tool of all - the gold colored embroidery scissors that were shaped like a bird.

I still have the scissors, but they are in a bigger case now. I still have the skills, but not as much time to use them.

When I purchased a new sewing machine, shortly before my children were born, it came with an embroidery tool built in it.

My clothing and crafts soon had these beautifully designed custom embroidery patterns on them - all created in the blink of an eye with this machine.

Today, there are websites, like, Threadsmith.com, where you can design your pattern online, and they will send you the clothing with your design beautifully embroidered on it.

Yep, embroidery has come a long way over the years. I am still glad to have this skill though. The joy that a handcrafted gift brings is unmeasurable.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

This April will be two years that I have had my photo website set up on the internet.

It is something that has worked well for me, and I am glad I did it when I did, as now it has some age to it. I almost had decided to wait until we were sure it was the "right time" - but sometimes when you wait for that it never gets here.

When I first started out, I had no idea about websites, and the whole idea of trying to put one together was really intimidating. And I didn't have the resources to hire a web designer.

Since I have been selling on the internet for over 10 years, I was quite aware of the security that I would have to deal with, and once again, I knew nothing about setting it up correctly.

I decided to go with an established photo web host that offered secure shopping cart software for customers who would be purchasing my images.

All I had to do was upload my images and learn some css coding so I could design my website to my liking.

My host handles the secure payments, which makes it a breeze for my customers.

And I don't have the headaches of trying to keep it safe for them to do so.

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Please visit my galleries at Photography by KML. All of my images are available for sale as prints and downloads. The shopping cart is easy to use and all orders are shipped promptly. If you have any
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